Last time around, we rolled out a rather comprehensive history of Nirvana’s biggest hit song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” This time, we trace the lineage of the second single from Nirvana’s Nevermind – an aquatic, forlorn song that incorporates guns and early video special effects.
With a dreary mood that put even most major grunge songs to shame, “Come as You Are” is a downbeat tune that doesn’t exactly qualify musically as a ballad but had the sad thematic content to make it one of sorts. Like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” before it, “Come as You Are” also contains unsavory references, some of which are downright eerie decades after Kurt Cobain used a gun to commit suicide.
At the time of his death, Cobain apparently had heroin in his system; bleach, which is used in the injection process of the drug, also makes a (perhaps prescient) appearance in the words he sang on this tune.
Read The Bad Penny‘s full reflection on the song courtesy of AllMusic.
